How your website can benefit if you launch early

by Michael Gabrian on 05/11/2017

Traditional web design usually follows a flow where you'll spend a couple of months designing, building, and testing a website and releasing the final product in the end. The problem is that once the site is finished and published, what if there are things you want to change? What if there are updates that need to be made? These typically won't be included in the initial budget. This is why it may be a good idea to launch early.

"Plans are nothing; planning is everything."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Why should I launch early?

Think about it like this. You launch the first version of your site at around 20-30% of the way through your timeline. This means you have the remainder of that time and budget to make the highest impact moves based on how visitors actually interact with your site. You don't have to make guesses for all of that time on how you think people will engage. This is all a part of the improvement cycles.

With this stretch of time collecting data and making smart decisions, you'll see that, maybe certain features of your site you thought were absolutely necessary won't make the impact you were hoping for.

This then brings me to the point of your minimum viable product. What are the main features that are must haves? These should be the core features that will have the highest impact on your site. The pieces that offer lower impact should be done a bit later.

The benefits of launching early

So we've talked a bit about why launching early helps makes the process a bit more successful, but let's take a look at some of the benefits we see in the end.

Minimized risk - Since the decisions are being made based off user data as it comes in, it's safe to assume that you're heading in the right direction.

Stronger marketing and sales knowledge - As you receive data, you'll learn a lot more about who your visitors are, how they behave on your site, and what they're interested in. The data you can collect is invaluable.

Continuous improvements - With all of this new knowledge comes better improvements. Your site won't remain stagnant for months at a time, it's always growing.

To conclude

Launching your site early in the development process can provide many awesome benefits to your project in the long run. If you want to learn more tips and tricks, download our free ebook below.